Words that describe equally Mike Clark’s late-night smoke-out Facebook rants and his drumming style. Mike would likely have you believe it’s a New York thing, man. You square, vanilla, boring west-coasters wouldn’t understand.

A sample Facebook post: “I always find it laughable when cats talk about the groove, the pocket the time, gettin real funky and all that bullshit then they get up there and play as loud as they can they walk off the stage thinking it was killin ..meanwhile at that volume there is no funk, no groove, no grease and you can’t play shit inside it..that is some juvenile stupid shit…”

Spectacular! What more do I need to say? February 20th the ultra-hip, ultra-cool, ultra-swinging Cat in the Hat, John Beasley’s MONK’estra BIG modern jazz BAND rocked the house at Vitellos’ Restaurant in Studio City.

Sculpting Monk’s percussive and dramatic compositions into a mixed media brew of Afro-Cuban beats, hip hop, funk and classic big band sounds, Monkestra turns the legendary pianists work into a contemporary work of art. Monk’s music, spare and minimalist, like Japanese brush painting, gave pianist, composer, Beasley space to display and create his highly personal and explosive interpretation. Clearly enjoying his role as conductor, the Grammy nominated JB took band to new heights with imaginative arrangements of jazz standards.

From the razzle-dazzle of “Little Rootie Tootie, with Rickey Minor laying down a funk bass line for Andy Martin’s trombone and Tom Luer’s tenor, to the capricious ballad “ Ask Me Now” featuring JB on the melodic Melodic, the band, surprised, beguiled, and wowed, like a magician pulling new tricks out of a magic bag.

The newly remodeled Vitello’s with its intimate upstairs room is a perfect venue for great listening, and wonderful dining featuring traditional Italian cuisine. Check out their calendar for future shows at http://www.vitellosjazz.com

Studio City, CA. John Beasley described the 18 piece ensemble he brought to Vitello’s Wednesday night as a MONK’estra. He also called it “A Big Modern Jazz Band.”

Both labels were right on target for this performance. First, the great majority of the program was dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk. Second, Beasley’s arrangements, combined with superb individual soloing from virtually every musician, resulted in a definitive display of “Big,” “Modern” and “Jazz Band.”

The John Beasley MONK-estra

The Monk pieces – including such classics as “Epistrophy,” “Little Rootie Tootie,” “Skippy” and “Ask Me Now” – were at their best when Beasley conceived big band settings enhancing, expanding and elaborating on the Monk originals. Often he captured Monk’s unique quirkiness, the offbeat accents, punchy dissonances and surprisingly soaring melodies. And he did so with stunningly atmospheric ensemble textures, powerfully driven by the propulsive rhythm team of bassist Ricky Minor, drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr., and Beasley’s own melodica playing.

Justo Almario, Ricky Minor, John Beasley

The performance occasionally recalled a famous 1959 concert at New York’s Town Hall, in which Monk performed with a tentet, playing arrangements of his music written by Hall Overton. But the presence of Monk in the ensemble — along with Overton’s occasional arrangements of previously recorded Monk solos for the horns — was very different from the scope of Beasley’s big band charts.

With maximum-sized horn sections – five trumpets, five doubling saxophones and four trombones – Beasley’s arranging moved into expansive, orchestral textures reaching well beyond both the Overton arrangements and familiar big band riffing. Like Bill Holman, he worked within his own musical dialect. Even in the pieces based on Monk works, he found intriguing ways to apply his imaginative perspectives to Monk’s music.

The saxophone section players – Bob Sheppard, Jeff Driskill, Justo Almario, Tom Luer and Tommy Peterson – were often called to double on clarinets (including a pair of bass clarinets), bringing a lush, fluid sound to many passages. Adding more timbral contrast, the trombonists – Francisco Torres, Wendell Kelly, Andy Martin, Steve Hughes and Ryan Dragon – as well as the powerful trumpet team (Bijon Watson, Willie Murillo, Ray Monterio, Brian Swartz and Gabe Johnson) were frequently asked to play with various mutes.

Interestingly, one of the many appealing products of Beasley’s envelope-stretching arrangements was some equally imaginative soloing from players who clearly seemed stimulated by their musical environment. The net result was some of the most mesmerizing big band music – individually and collectively – of recent memory.

The only reservation about this remarkable evening was the thought that Beasley’s choice of the title “MONK-estra,” along with the decision to focus so strongly on Monk’s music, had too narrowly delineated his obviously extraordinary orchestrating abilities. The few pieces that were not based on Monk’s works revealed Beasley’s capacity to deliver the broader, more expansive definition of what he also calls his?”Big Modern Jazz Band.” It will be fascinating to see what he can do if he moves more convincingly in that distinctive, more personally expressive direction.

Steve Ross is the essence of cabaret. He sings sweetly, interprets intelligently, emotes appropriately and enunciates perfectly. He performs with style, elegance, wit and simplicity and, when you combine those characteristics with songs introduced by Fred Astaire, you have an unbeatable combination that ensures a winning evening of pure entertainment.

Ross, an unquestioned genius on the piano, sang approximately 35 songs in a 90-minute show — nearly three times the song count in a typical cabaret act. With a few minutes for patter and applause, that’s an average of one song every two minutes, which is par for his approach — singing each song once through “in two” — pretty much the way most of them were originally written. Ross had strong support throughout the evening from Brian Cassier on bass.

Ross combined several songs into medleys — usually grouped by composer or subject — often moving from one familiar melody to another so smoothly, with such easy transitions, that a less-informed listener might think they were a single song. For example, an extraordinary string that included the Gershwins’ “He Loves and She Loves,” “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “Shall We Dance?” with Berlin’s “It Only Happens When I Dance with You” and “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.”

One medley combined “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails” with “No Strings” (both by Berlin), while another joined Berlin’s “I Won’t Dance” with “I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man” (Johnny Mercer/Harry Warren), and a third allowed Ross to sing Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “Steppin’ Out with My Baby” while alternating verses of one with the other in a true mash-up.

Though Ross’s voice occasionally wavered, he was particularly strong on a nicely nuanced “Dancing in the Dark” (Howard Dietz/Arthur Schwartz), a warmly touching “Night and Day” (Cole Porter), and earnest versions of Porter’s “I Concentrate on You” and the Johnny Mercer-Harold Arlen classic, “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road).”

One of the evening’s surprises was a soft ballad written by Astaire himself, with lyrics by Tommy Wolfe: “City of the Angels.”

The Astaire canon is full of so many standards that one could almost feel the audience bursting to sing along, so that once Ross finally invited it to do so — on “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” (Gershwins) — it had no qualms about joining in enthusiastically on his final three songs as well — “Cheek to Cheek” (Berlin); “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” (Berlin); and “Nevertheless (I’m in Love with You)” (Harry Ruby/Bert Kalmar).

Bill Holman and his big band made one of their rare but always welcome Southland appearances Friday night at Vitello’s. And, with a packed house listening avidly to every note, Holman once again displayed his remarkable mastery of the big band format.

One could make a good case for big band instrumentation – trumpet, trombone and saxophone sections supported by a three or four person rhythm section – as the symphony orchestra of America’s twenty century jazz and pop music, reaching from the Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and Paul Whiteman bands of the ‘20s and ‘30s through Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Stan Kenton and Oliver Nelson into the present. Whether it was performing music for dancing, for backing singers, for sheer jazz excitement or for movie soundtracks, classic big band sounds have been (and continue to be) an assemblage of tonal textures and rhythms with a seemingly limitless array of possibilities.

And Bill Holman has explored the full fledged expression of those qualities for six decades with a seemingly limitless range of inventive creativity. As he did at Vitello’s.

The Bill Holman Big Band

Standing amid the tables to implement his characteristically modest conducting, he led his assemblage of world class L.A. master players in a stunning collection of classic big band arrangements and originals.

Holman’s unique style, first heard during his early writing for Stan Kenton in the ‘50s, has remained one of the most uniquely original big band arranging techniques. Combining contrapuntal methods rarely heard in big jazz band arranging, often interlacing individual instruments from different sections, Holman does so while still retaining deeply intimate contact with the propulsive rhythmic swing essential to jazz.

Given both the challenges and the pleasures of performing his charts, it’s no wonder that Holman’s band was a stellar gathering, glittering with the presence of some of the finest, most musically sophisticated musicians in Los Angeles (or anywhere).

Pete Christlieb and Doug Webb

The program of Holman arrangements and originals kept offering one fascinating piece after another. Among the many high points:

But, as always, it was the combination of Holman’s uniquely stylistic writing, performed by an impressive array of players, that made the program so memorable. Which is usually the case when the Holman Big Band performs.

Reminding us of the importance of hearing the live music of a jazz giant – Holman, in this case – whenever the opportunity arises.

To read an iRoM Q & A with Bill Holman, click HERE. http://irom.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/q-a-bill-holman-composer-arranger-bandleader

By Norton Wright

It was such a class act, it reminded me of those sophisticated nights long ago at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City where the ballroom shows were graced by the

likes of Lena Horne and Peggy Lee.

So it was no surprise that jazz songstress Bonnie Bowden’s date on Sunday afternoon at Vitello’s was sold out a week in advance and the waiting list went on forever. Elegant, sexy, and engaging, Bowden dished up a clinic on how to present a musically delicious

show. Here were some of the ingredients:

How to achieve a compelling start? Enlist a great quartet like Llew Matthews (piano and arranger), Ricky Woodard (tenor sax), Luther Hughes (acoustic bass), and Ralph Penland (drums) and then turn them loose all by themselves to hot up the audience with an opening seven-minute, up-tempo take on the standard “Day By Day.” And have Ricky Woodard do some great and serious blowing so all in the jam-packed room know it’s time to stop lunching and talking and do some serious listening. This opener was so good, we thought we could have just listened to the band for the rest of the afternoon. I mean, could things get any better? YOU BET!

The star’s entrance: Quickly and from the very back of the house so everyone in an instant caught the flash of her dramatic crimson blouse, black slacks, and blonde hair pulled back into a diamond clip, Bowden made her way through the audience, up onto the stage, and into her first number. The lyrics told the audience exactly what the ebullient Ms. Bowden wanted them to know, “I Love Being Here With You!”

What’s the show about? Bowden’s easygoing intros to her songs are brief and tell her listeners something about the composers and lyricists and why the songs are special to her. We’re amazed that she’s self-taught in a broad range of music from coloratura opera to country to Broadway, but she loves jazz best, and we’re going to be treated this afternoon to The Great American – and sometimes Great Brazilian — Songbook by composer/lyricist icons like Jimmy McHugh, Frank Loesser, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gus Kahn, Hal David/Burt Bachrach, Edu Lobo, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, and the list was to go beautifully on and on as the afternoon progressed.

Variety: Bowden has the rare capacity to convincingly turn her song renditions on an emotional dime, and so she paces the running order of her tunes so the moods do change quickly and with lots of surprises. “You Are So Beautiful” by Billy Preston & Bruce Fisher was given a soulful jazz treatment, and the audience figured Bowden was talking directly to them. Her take on “Ain’t We Got Fun” was humorous and satiric, the lyric, ‘The rich get rich and the poor get children’ as biting today as it was when penned by Gus Kahn back in 1922. And in a hot, hip-swivelin’, honkey-tonkin’ surprise, the lissome Ms. Bowden laid a jazz take on Willie Nelson’s country tune, “Crazy,” and risked prompting all the males in the audience to immediately lust after her — and this on a Sunday afternoon!

What can a singer do during the instrumental breaks in the songs she’s singing? Sometimes singers today seem to forget they’re still on stage, and during their band’s instrumental breaks they often search for something to do — like reaching down for a water bottle, publicly gurgling the H20, and then awkwardly regarding their surroundings until it’s time to resume singing… Bonnie Bowden answers the problem by turning to listen intently to each member of her band, genuinely enjoying them and in doing so, becoming at one with her audience. There’s something outright communal in a group of listeners sharing their appreciation of a band’s grooving, and Bowden doesn’t hide the fact that she digs listening to her guys.

Spontaneity: Finally, if the opportunity is there, go for it! Bowden’s affection for Brazilian jazz springs from her singing with Sergio Mendes’ Brazil ’77, and at Vitello’s by mid-set she got into an Ipanema groove singing Edu Lobo’s haunting ballad “Adeus” (“To Say Goodbye”) in perfect Portuguese and then in English. Maybe it was time then to return to the American Songbook, but spotting in the audience the legendary percussionists Paulinho Da Costa from Brazil and Mexican-American Pete Escovedo, she invited them to join with her on stage for composer Jorge Ben’s high-energy, bossa nova song, “Mais Que Nada.” The result was a gas! These two gents can play at least 200 different percussive instruments but with only shakers in Escovedo’s hands and a tambourine in those of Da Costa, they tagged Bowden’s song with such a feast of polyrhythmic accents that she and the audience just loved the fun and surprise of it. Good guys, Bowden gave them kisses, and her band and the audience gave them a great big hand.

Closing out the show were the love songs: “Why Did I Choose You” during which Bowden found a warm and beautifully textured timbre almost indistinguishable from that of Doris Day. Then a quick change of pace to Jimmy McHugh & Harold Adamson’s “I Just Found Out About Love” which Bowden ended on a stratospheric note toward the top of her amazing four-octave range. And for a finale, Jerome Kern & Otto Harbach’s “Yesterdays” in an unconventional and swinging tempo that gave the audience something happy to end on and propelled them to their feet. To see a crowd of 120 people of all ages spontaneously erupt into a standing and joyous ovation was enough to make you believe that Dionysus lives!

Given that competing with Bowden’s show for afternoon attention were the NBA playoffs, various Cinco de Mayo weekend celebrations, a host of tentpole movies, and a Dodger home game, Vitello’s jazz entrepreneur April Williams deserves plaudits for courageously expanding her jazz programs into daytime hours. And on this particular Sunday afternoon, the sunshine outside Vitello’s was niftily matched inside by the bright glow of Bonnie Bowden, a jazz artist and consummate entertainer whom we’ll be seeing a lot more of.

Congratulations to both Bowden and Williams for trying something new and succeeding. Encore, encore!

]]>http://www.vitellosjazz.com/2012/05/15/bonnie-bowden-at-vitello%e2%80%99s/feed/0LA Weekly Music Pick for Saturday – Billy Childshttp://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/11/02/la-weekly-music-pick-for-saturday-billy-childs/
http://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/11/02/la-weekly-music-pick-for-saturday-billy-childs/#commentsThu, 03 Nov 2011 00:07:39 +0000adminhttp://www.vitellosjazz.com/?p=807Los Angeles–born composer and pianist Billy Childs was a traditionally trained jazz pianist (spending six years in the band of the late Freddie Hubbard) but had an eye to expanding his repertoire to include elements of classical music. A decade ago Childs founded a jazz chamber ensemble including a harp, sometimes adding a string or woodwind quartet. Childs’ composing prowess and willingness to push boundaries have so far garnered him 10 Grammy nominations with three awards, including a 2006 Grammy for his jazz chamber composition “Into the Light.” His two shows Saturday feature guitarist Larry Koonse, harpist Carol Robbins, bassist Hamilton Price, saxophonist Katisse Buckingham and former Tonight Show drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith.

Clarinetist Eddie Daniels’ masterful performance at Vitello’s Friday was – as his appearances often are – a gripping reminder of his instrument’s adventurous jazz past, present and future.

Eddie Daniels

For the first half of the jazz century, the clarinet was one of the music’s key voices. Vital to the New Orleans style, a virtual celebrity instrument in the hands of Swing bandleaders such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Woody Herman, its presence remained high, until it ran into hard times – and diminished interest — with the arrival of bebop in the ‘40s and beyond.

A few hardy souls labored on through the forests of bop, with Buddy DeFranco one of the principal pathfinders. Others arrived over the next few decades, with the numbers of adroit clarinetists increasing in recent years.

Daniels, who was celebrating his 70th birthday two days earlier, has been producing memorable work – on tenor saxophone, as well as clarinet – since he arrived on the scene with the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra in the mid-‘60s. An authentic classical artist as well as a superb improvising musician, the only thing missing from his Vitello’s performance would have been his own unique take on something such as the Larghetto from the Mozart Clarinet Quintet.

Tom Ranier, Eddie Daniels, Darek Oles

But no matter. What renaissance man Daniels did play was largely astounding, sometimes even more than that.

Joe LaBarbera

Start with his utter mastery of an instrument whose technical demands more often produce mediocre results than the sort of articulate clarity that Daniels tossed off with almost casual ease. Backed by the confident, interactive support of pianist Tom Ranier, bassist Darek Oles and drummer Joe LaBarbera, he concentrated upon clarinet – except for a pair of jovial jaunts on his tenor saxophone through “They Say That Falling In Love Is Wonderful” and an original Daniels piece that somehow managed to convincingly blend tango with bossa nova.

Tom Ranier

Among the clarinet highlights: Ranier’s delightfully re-invented version of the old Benny Goodman classic, “Stealin’ Apples”; and a wildly audacious flight through an equally new-view version of Charlie Parker’s “Bye-Bye Blues.”

And ultimately it was Daniels’ clarinet soloing that dominated the spotlight – as it should. One fleet solo after another, rendered with an irresistible flow of swing, affirmed his consummate blend of dexterous technical skills and vivid improvisational inventiveness.

No wonder that, with Daniels in the forefront, the clarinet once again seems to be finding its rightful place in the jazz hierarchy.

]]>http://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/10/26/live-jazz-the-eddie-daniels-quartet-at-vitello%e2%80%99s/feed/0Nineteen-year-old Ventura trombonist John Egizihttp://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/10/20/nineteen-year-old-ventura-trombonist-john-egizi/
http://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/10/20/nineteen-year-old-ventura-trombonist-john-egizi/#commentsThu, 20 Oct 2011 21:39:46 +0000adminhttp://www.vitellosjazz.com/?p=684Nineteen-year-old Ventura trombonist John Egizi wants to take his instrument where few players have gone before. As part of Barbara Brighton‘s Young Artists series, a 15-year-old Egizi artfully slid his way through John Coltrane‘s “Song of Praise” at Catalina — and it was nothing short of astonishing. Since then Egizi has gone on to win awards as a soloist, tour with Antonio Hart and Bobby Watson, and play beside the likes of Christian McBride, Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis at the White House. Before Egizi heads back East for his Presidential Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music, he’s joined by pianist Ruslan Sirota, bassist Hamilton Price and drummer Dan Schnelle. The quartet almost certainly will show that the next generation of jazz is in very capable hands. —Tom Meek

]]>http://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/10/20/nineteen-year-old-ventura-trombonist-john-egizi/feed/0Patty Ascher tour stops at Vitello’shttp://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/10/20/patty-ascher-tour-stops-at-vitellos/
http://www.vitellosjazz.com/2011/10/20/patty-ascher-tour-stops-at-vitellos/#commentsThu, 20 Oct 2011 19:20:23 +0000adminhttp://www.vitellosjazz.com/?p=680Brazilian singer and songwriter Patty Ascher will perform at Vitello’s in Studio City on October 6, 2011. This is part of her California tour in support of her new release on Zoho Music entitled Bossa, Jazz ‘n’ Samba. Vitello’s is located at 4349 Tujunga Avenue and the phone number is 818-769-0905. Ascher will be backed up with the band of Marco Pontes on piano, Ronaldo Reyes on acoustic guitar, Ubaldo Versolate on saxophone and flute, Eric Budney on bass and Nahame Casseb on drums.

The CD features 11 songs that are recorded in English and Portuguese. Ascher wrote most of the songs with co-writer Marco Pontes. She adds to the long list of artists from Brazil. Of course, Brazil has long been known as a country that produced some great musical talent. Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Astrid Gilberto are just a few of the outstanding artists that have made Brazilian music popular all over thw world. You can check out Patty Ascher’s website at http://www.pattyascher.com. Vitello’s Restaurant website is http://www.vitellosrestaurant.com.